Fredericksburg, VA -- In case you haven't heard about them, education coaches are the latest trend in personalized home tutoring services -- and an increasingly popular alternative to franchised centers. "Education coaches are like personal fitness trainers for the mind," says Karen Garay, owner of Virginia Academics Tutoring Service in Fredericksburg, Va. "They're credentialed, experienced teachers, experts in subject areas, honors level college or high school students who come to your home or meet at your local library and offer your child personal, individualized attention." Yet they offer much more than straightforward academic help. "They're detectives, cheerleaders, sounding boards…quasi-counselors, really. They can help with absolutely anything and everything you need," she continues. Academic coaches are a wonderful choice for challenging gifted students during the summer or school year, as well as helping students to start the New Year off ahead of the game.

Because education coaches offer such a wide array of services, including Kindergarten readiness, basic subject remediation, college test preparation, diagnostic skills testing, study skills building, and specialized skills like computers, art and foreign languages, they work one-on-one with parents to design individualized curriculums. "We had one student, who needed help in Algebra II, but her mom also wanted her to have private computer lessons, and her dad wanted her to start narrowing down her list of college choices. The education coach provided all that. Obviously, you won't find that level of accommodation in many programs," says Garay.

In addition, education coaches believe that any child can excel once the source of the problem is identified. "When a student is faring poorly in school, it almost never has anything to do with intelligence," Mrs. Garay claims. "It can be caused by any number of things, like an unusual mental block, or poor motivation, or shyness, or boredom. Perhaps the instructor's particular teaching style didn't jive with that student's particular learning style. Or maybe it's anxiety as a result of transitioning from one grade level to the next. But it's our job to get to the root of it and correct it, because often the teachers are too close to it, or too busy, to see it for what it is."

The coach/tutor comes to your home, library place of mutual agreement, eliminating the "center feeling. The great aspect is that they use their school curriculum. They are getting help in the subject NOW. "

Hiring an academic coach may be cost effective. "One hour of concentrated study with an education coach is equivalent to several hours in a commercial/franchise classroom," says Garay. "The kids are the ones who benefit the most. They get their academic needs met, and they can use all that remaining freed-up time for the things that free time is really for…playing, reading, swimming, biking,...being kids. That's really important. Education coaches know that, too."

Virginia Academics is a new service offering private academic coaching and tutoring in the Fredericksburg area. Visit their website at www.VirginiaAcademics.com or call 540-408-3065.